1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to disk drives for computer systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to locating an initial servo track in order to servo write a disk drive from spiral tracks.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When manufacturing a disk drive, product servo sectors 20-27 are written to a disk 4 which define a plurality of radially-spaced, concentric data tracks 6 as shown in the prior art disk format of FIG. 1. Each product servo sector (e.g., servo sector 24) comprises a preamble 8 for synchronizing gain control and timing recovery, a sync mark 10 for synchronizing to a data field 12 comprising coarse head positioning information such as a track number, and servo bursts 14 which provide fine head positioning information. During normal operation the servo bursts 14 are processed by the disk drive in order to maintain a head over a centerline of a target track while writing or reading data. In the past, external servo writers have been used to write the product servo sectors 20-27 to the disk surface during manufacturing. External servo writers employ extremely accurate head positioning mechanics, such as a laser interferometer, to ensure the product servo sectors 20-27 are written at the proper radial location from the outer diameter of the disk to the inner diameter of the disk. However, external servo writers are expensive and require a clean room environment so that a head positioning pin can be inserted into the head disk assembly (HDA) without contaminating the disk. Thus, external servo writers have become an expensive bottleneck in the disk drive manufacturing process.
The prior art has suggested various “self-servo” writing methods wherein the internal electronics of the disk drive are used to write the product servo sectors independent of an external servo writer. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,668,679 teaches a disk drive which performs a self-servo writing operation by writing a plurality of spiral tracks to the disk which are then processed to write the product servo sectors along a circular path. Each spiral track is written to the disk as a high frequency signal (with missing bits), wherein the position error signal (PES) for tracking is generated relative to time shifts in the detected location of the spiral tracks. In addition, the '679 patent generates a servo write clock by synchronizing a phase-locked loop (PLL) to the missing bits in the spiral tracks.
The '679 patent rotates an actuator arm until it contacts an outer diameter (OD) crash stop in order to position the head over an initial servo track at the beginning of the servo writing operation. However, utilizing an OD crash stop to locate the initial servo track may be undesirable for a number of reasons, including the loss of available recording area, or impracticality, such as in disk drives that employ ramp loading/unloading.